It's been 3 hours since I got back. I'm tired but still reeling from the trip's excitement. It's one of those "I don't know where or how to begin because there is so much to say" moments. Know whadda mean? But, I shall start at the very beginning, a very good place to start - as taught to us by The Sound of music. That reminds me...during the entire trip I kept singing "The hills are alive with the sound of music...dooo dooo dooo dooo"!
So on Friday, 25th Sept we set out in two rental cars at about 11:30 am after a whole lot of grocery shopping to sustain us for the drive and the weekend. We had 9 travelers and 8 of us could drive, so we took shifts. The entire drive took about 12 hours and each person drove an average of 3 hours. The Swedish roads were straight with slight bends, which were easy peasy. But the roads of Norway were another monster altogether.
Very sexy with many many curves and narrow roads that spiraled up and around rocky mountains. It didn't help that 5 of the 8 drivers were Singaporeans who had never driven on the left side of the car and right side of the road. I drove the evening shift from Kiruna, Sweden to slightly further up from Narvik, Norway. It went pretty okay, as there was still light. But there was one time that I thought I saw a huge truck coming directly towards me so I swung out onto the left lane for vehicles coming in the opposite direction. Then as the truck got nearer I relaised that he was on the right lane, and that because of the curves in the road I thought he was coming right at me, so I swung back into my lane, much to the shock and horror of my passengers. I was overcome with nausea for the next 10mins but kept driving anyway. The sharp bends, and curves of the mountainous countryside and the darkening sky didn't help much either. Soon after, the next driver took over and brought us safely to Lofoten, where we found a nice grassy campsite and slept in our cars next to caravans. It was freezing to say the least, and uncomfortable, but it was an experience.
The next day we drove around sightseeing and looking for accommodation. Everywhere you turned in Lofoten, you'd want to stop and take a picture. There is nothing there that is not worthy of a picture or a "wah so nice one!". There were rocky cliffs, lush green fields, looming and majestic mountains- some of which were capped with snow and the waters were a hundered different hues of blue all at once. Spectacular. When we stopped by the coast on a highway to
take pictures, Bryan, Katalin and I discovered a (albiet dangerous) path and took it down to the coast and up the steep rocks to make it to the top most point. The guys back at the car went on about how crazy we were and were shouting to get our attention to come back down. Going up was hard, coming down was harder. Then we drove past a sandy beach, and made it all the way to the furthest town in Lofoten. I just love the houses that line the coast and dot the landscape, sometimes I wonder how they got there and how safe they are in their precarious positions.
Then we found a nice place to stay called Mila's house. It was about $26 to stay there and we all had rooms with different themes, a kitchen and 2 bathrooms. We technically had the whole lower portion of the house to ourselves. After putting our things down, Melissa, Katalin, Bryan and I decided to take a hike - literally. We followed a trail that started from in front of Mila's house and lead us right up to a mountain / hill (you decide) behind the house. It started off easy and it got
steeper, wetter and scarier as we went on but we climbed it anyway. And I was getting hungry so I was picking and eating blueberries as I went along. The ground was covered in a beautiful moss that sprung back like a cushion and it was littered with pretty red flowers. When we finally go to what we thought was the top we discovered that we could go so much higher...so we did...and the view was awesome. We could see all of Lofoten stretched out beneath us. The wind was so strong at the top that I had to crouch to take photos because standing up almost blew me off the top. We even experienced a mini hailstorm on the way up. The whole thing was so
worthwhile. On our way down we took a different unmarked route and ended up trashing our way through a very painful and dense pine forest -something I NEVER want to do again - nuff said. And the guys back in the house were wondering where the 4 gundus had gone, so they were driving around in hopes to find and rescue us, thankfully they spotted us and Vishnu drove us home from the main road where the blasted pine forest ended.The evening was spent playing card games and polar bear, but we were all sleepy so we all hit the sack relatively early so we could leave by 11am the next morning for the long commute home.
Bright and early on the 26th of September, Sunday morning we headed off stopping only for pictures at especially scenic locations. The weather was even colder so we never stayed outside of the car for long. We had become a bit more familiar with the road so the drive home took shorter. This time I drove after nightfall. Starting from Kiruna, Sweden I drove 230km in the dark with my high beam headlights on, turning them off every few seconds because there was a vehicle approaching. There were hardly any streetlights, only reflectors, and the boys in the car reminding me to keep left. Sometimes on narrow roads, the white marking for the center divider would be non-existent leaving me really, really on edge. But hey, I made it with God's grace and the a lot of guidance from the guys in my car. I'm flattered that people actually fell asleep while I was driving, it's a sign that I'm capable of being steady :) *Note to parents: I can drive to Cameron Highlands, no problem liao.
Most of the pictures are on Facebook, as usual so go have a look see and tell me what you think! And if you ever want to travel to Norway, my tip would be to use Sweden as your base because it is a whole lot cheaper to buy food and rent a car here than it is in Norway. Oh and it's the countryside, not the cities that you should see there :)
So on Friday, 25th Sept we set out in two rental cars at about 11:30 am after a whole lot of grocery shopping to sustain us for the drive and the weekend. We had 9 travelers and 8 of us could drive, so we took shifts. The entire drive took about 12 hours and each person drove an average of 3 hours. The Swedish roads were straight with slight bends, which were easy peasy. But the roads of Norway were another monster altogether.
Very sexy with many many curves and narrow roads that spiraled up and around rocky mountains. It didn't help that 5 of the 8 drivers were Singaporeans who had never driven on the left side of the car and right side of the road. I drove the evening shift from Kiruna, Sweden to slightly further up from Narvik, Norway. It went pretty okay, as there was still light. But there was one time that I thought I saw a huge truck coming directly towards me so I swung out onto the left lane for vehicles coming in the opposite direction. Then as the truck got nearer I relaised that he was on the right lane, and that because of the curves in the road I thought he was coming right at me, so I swung back into my lane, much to the shock and horror of my passengers. I was overcome with nausea for the next 10mins but kept driving anyway. The sharp bends, and curves of the mountainous countryside and the darkening sky didn't help much either. Soon after, the next driver took over and brought us safely to Lofoten, where we found a nice grassy campsite and slept in our cars next to caravans. It was freezing to say the least, and uncomfortable, but it was an experience.
The next day we drove around sightseeing and looking for accommodation. Everywhere you turned in Lofoten, you'd want to stop and take a picture. There is nothing there that is not worthy of a picture or a "wah so nice one!". There were rocky cliffs, lush green fields, looming and majestic mountains- some of which were capped with snow and the waters were a hundered different hues of blue all at once. Spectacular. When we stopped by the coast on a highway to 
take pictures, Bryan, Katalin and I discovered a (albiet dangerous) path and took it down to the coast and up the steep rocks to make it to the top most point. The guys back at the car went on about how crazy we were and were shouting to get our attention to come back down. Going up was hard, coming down was harder. Then we drove past a sandy beach, and made it all the way to the furthest town in Lofoten. I just love the houses that line the coast and dot the landscape, sometimes I wonder how they got there and how safe they are in their precarious positions.
Then we found a nice place to stay called Mila's house. It was about $26 to stay there and we all had rooms with different themes, a kitchen and 2 bathrooms. We technically had the whole lower portion of the house to ourselves. After putting our things down, Melissa, Katalin, Bryan and I decided to take a hike - literally. We followed a trail that started from in front of Mila's house and lead us right up to a mountain / hill (you decide) behind the house. It started off easy and it got 
steeper, wetter and scarier as we went on but we climbed it anyway. And I was getting hungry so I was picking and eating blueberries as I went along. The ground was covered in a beautiful moss that sprung back like a cushion and it was littered with pretty red flowers. When we finally go to what we thought was the top we discovered that we could go so much higher...so we did...and the view was awesome. We could see all of Lofoten stretched out beneath us. The wind was so strong at the top that I had to crouch to take photos because standing up almost blew me off the top. We even experienced a mini hailstorm on the way up. The whole thing was so 
worthwhile. On our way down we took a different unmarked route and ended up trashing our way through a very painful and dense pine forest -something I NEVER want to do again - nuff said. And the guys back in the house were wondering where the 4 gundus had gone, so they were driving around in hopes to find and rescue us, thankfully they spotted us and Vishnu drove us home from the main road where the blasted pine forest ended.The evening was spent playing card games and polar bear, but we were all sleepy so we all hit the sack relatively early so we could leave by 11am the next morning for the long commute home.
Bright and early on the 26th of September, Sunday morning we headed off stopping only for pictures at especially scenic locations. The weather was even colder so we never stayed outside of the car for long. We had become a bit more familiar with the road so the drive home took shorter. This time I drove after nightfall. Starting from Kiruna, Sweden I drove 230km in the dark with my high beam headlights on, turning them off every few seconds because there was a vehicle approaching. There were hardly any streetlights, only reflectors, and the boys in the car reminding me to keep left. Sometimes on narrow roads, the white marking for the center divider would be non-existent leaving me really, really on edge. But hey, I made it with God's grace and the a lot of guidance from the guys in my car. I'm flattered that people actually fell asleep while I was driving, it's a sign that I'm capable of being steady :) *Note to parents: I can drive to Cameron Highlands, no problem liao.
Most of the pictures are on Facebook, as usual so go have a look see and tell me what you think! And if you ever want to travel to Norway, my tip would be to use Sweden as your base because it is a whole lot cheaper to buy food and rent a car here than it is in Norway. Oh and it's the countryside, not the cities that you should see there :)
Hi Shila! I found you!
ReplyDeleteI have a blog too!
http://maracatusueco.blogspot.com